•  Languages are all about communicating with people and most communication is through speech. Yet curiously, speaking is often the one skill which is neglected, both in the classroom and when working independently. There are however various ways that you can improve these skills.

•  Clearly the best way to improve your speaking is to talk with a native speaker of the language, and the presence of native speakers of a range of languages in the University presents an ideal opportunity to exchange conversation in your mother tongue with conversation in the language you are learning. This will greatly improve your fluency, although this should not be at the expense of accuracy. Make sure your partner corrects your mistakes, or you could develop bad habits.

•  Listen actively to authentic speech. Note in particular the little words and expressions that are used to link ideas, start sentences, give opinions, change the subject, etc. Try to think "how would I have said that?" and analyze any differences with the actual speech.

•  Repeat phrases or whole sentences, attempting to imitate exactly the pronunciation, intonation and the speed of the original. If possible, record yourself using a tape recorder or an interactive CD-ROM so you can compare and try again as necessary.

•  When there is a transcript available mark the stresses, then after listening to the passage several times read the whole script aloud, again trying to mimic the original. Time yourself and compare this with the duration of the tape.

•  Many course books include controlled drills or one-sided dialogues where you have to provide appropriate responses.